Ithaca Blog

Monday, February 17, 2014

Time For A New Doctor

I started thinking about my health care with all this talk about Obamacare, even though the act doesn't affect me, and I decided to look for a new doctor. My old one was okay, because at my check-ups he never asked if there was anything wrong with me, but on the couple of occasions that there was, and I told him and said I did some research online, he'd say, "What did you find out?," and start taking notes.

He has a diploma on the wall but it does not say where he graduated, class level, thus me looking around.

I had a recommendation from a friend about a different office, so I went over there last week. But the exchange was disconcerting.

When I explained my situation (without so much detail), the office manager smiled sweetly. "I'm sorry," she said. "We're not taking any new patients at the moment. Try back in a month or so."

Which basically made me wonder what was happening this month. Are they expecting some patients to die?

I imagined myself as their patient, and a new one coming around. "Well, we've got a guy named Steve Burke who might die. Check back with us in a month. It might be sooner if he forgets to call us back on this report."

Forget that, you know? I want a place that will either take me right now, or tell me come back in a year. That they've got some people who might die, but they're scheming on saving them.